The Panthers got off to a great start and finished up strong with victories in their season opener and finale. The middle 46 games of this abbreviated season, however, were mostly ones to forget. The Panthers won just 15 games and finished in last place for the first time. At least the season only lasted three-plus months.
FIVE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG
1Injuries took apart the Panthers as they led the league with 338 man-games lost. Sure, some minor players were gone, but Florida really struggled without the likes of Stephen Weiss (17 games played), Kris Versteeg (10), Jose Theodore (15), Ed Jovanovski (six) and Sean Bergenheim (none).
2The Panthers felt good after a rousing 5-1 win over Carolina to open things up, but things went south in a hurry. Florida lost its next five games and never recovered, finishing last among the 30 NHL teams.
3Goaltenders Theodore and Scott Clemmensen got off to rough starts with Theodore tearing two groin muscles right as he was turning things around. Jacob Markstrom came up and showed promise as the future starter.
4Florida’s penalty kill was not only last in the league, but was statistically the worst since at least 1997-98 (that’s as far back as the NHL stats go). The Panthers gave up power play goals almost 26 percent of the time.
5The Panthers got shut out seven times this season as consistent scoring was a problem throughout. The Panthers ended tied for next-to-last in goals scored and 29th in 5-on-5 scoring.